Age of consent for sex?

[Jbr]

I was chatting to someone and they said that Spain as a country should be prosecuted because the age of consent is 12. While I am not sure I agree with it being that low, I don't think there should be an international law on this issue.

The good thing is though, the age of consent covers gay and straight. Whether the age is 12 or 20 it should be the same. They obviously do some things better than in the UK.

It is interesting though that what/who you class as a child varies so much the world over.

Age of consent in the UK was actually not a repressive thing at all. It was brought in after campaigns by women's organisations in the 19th century to protect young girls from prostitution.

By having an age of consent, where there wasn't one before, it allowed men who had had sex with child prostitutes to be prosecuted, without them offering the defence 'she was willing.' It was considered that a girl under 16 could not 'decide' to be a prostitute and that the nature of the relationship between her and an often much older man was bound to be exploitative. The age of consent law faced huge opposition at the time from men who thought it was their right to have sex with girls as young as they wanted.

This is why we have never had an age of consent for boys - except by default, for homosexual acts, which were illegal until they were 'decriminalised' about 30 years ago, but only (at that time) for people over 21. Then this was extended to 18, which is where the debate currently resides.

I don't know about the history of the age of consent in other countries, but I expect it is quite different. Lowering the age of consent to 12 would mean that men who have sex with 12-year-old girls could say the girl wanted it...whereas in this country, it would clearly be a case of child abuse.

I do agree it should be the same for male and female,gay and straight, and 16 feels about right to me.

Did anyone one read the article in today's Guardian by Peter Tatchell calling for the age of consent to be lowered? He did make a few points worth thinking about. He wrote about the rights of people under 16 to be able to make their own decisions about whether or not they were ready for sex. He also pointed out that the average age for first sexual experiences is 14. This does seem young but I thought his most important point was what he said about sex education and how he felt it was inadequate. He wrote that the age of consent was "often used as justification for denying them this information and protection."[Detailed safe sex advice and access to condoms.]
I felt inclined to agree with him. If 14 year olds are having sex anyway regardless of the law (and from what I remember at school - most of them were) surely they deserve adequate, honest and thorough sex education. This seems all the more important now as from what I've read this week the number of cases of STDs are rapidly increasing particularly amongst young girls. I left school only 5 years ago and I only recall one sex education lesson and it only lasted 1/2 an hour. This obviously isn't enough time to give all of the neccesary info on contraception, STDs, pregnancy, the emotional aspects of sexual relationships etc. It's no wonder that young people are so ill educated when it comes to protecting their health.